Thursday, May 15, 2008

Plans Change...

I am not sure if you all know, but one of my bucket list items is to stay in a haunted hotel room. Well Marie and I are living out that bucket list item next month. We were originally scheduled to stay at the Morgan house in Savannah, Ga. The weekend of June 6th. Well an error in judgement (have those from time to time) and the fact that Friday the 13th is the following weekend, we changed our plans to the Friday the Thirteenth.
Seems that the Morgan house (plus nearly every other haunted B and B in Savannah) was going to be booked for that weekend. So I did some looking on the internet and found another B&B that had a room for the 13th.....
The Kehoe House room 203...
On one edge of Columbia Square sits the massive Kehoe House, built in 1892 for William Kehoe. The Queen Anne style mansion was built as the Kehoe residence, and it showcased what William was known for in Savannah: iron. What else would the owner of an ironworks foundry use to adorn his house but cast iron railings, Corinthian columns, porches, balconies, and window moldings? The house was built for the sum of $25,000.

William Kehoe is fondly remembered by his granddaughter, Anne C. Rizert. She remembered him as “a small person but he stood tall because he had that intangible presence of a man who recognizes his own worth, knowing it was God’s graceful gift.” She goes on to say that “he was very young when he became involved in the Civil War. He had the misfortune to be poor and on the losing side but this was irrelevant to him. Irishmen always seemed to fight well for lost causes.”

Over the years it was a private residence, but it spent the majority of the 20th century as a funeral home. Today, it is a bed and breakfast, one of the only 4-Star bed and breakfasts in the South, and the only one in Savannah. It is also quite possibly America’s only haunted 4-Star establishment.

A Tragic End for Twins?
A persistent story, perhaps legend and perhaps not, told about the Kehoe family is that twins were born into the Kehoe family, and that they supposedly died while playing in a chimney in one of the rooms. The fireplaces have all been blocked up, and decorated with angels—perhaps symbolizing the lost children. A series of hauntings have been attributed to these children. Guests on the second floor have often heard children’s laughter and small footsteps running down the hall. Some guests have even complained the next morning to the front desk, not realizing that children are strongly discouraged from staying in such a prestigious inn. Even if the rumors of the twins dying in the fireplace are not true, it would not be unusual for the sounds of children’s feet running down the halls at the Kehoe House, given the size of the Kehoe clan.

Many of the stories in the house center on the rooms 201 and 203. A guest of room 201 said she awoke in the middle of the night after feeling someone softly stroking her hair and cheek. Thinking that it was her husband, she opened her eyes to find a young child caressing her face—a child who then vanished. No word on whether her screams woke her husband!

In room 203, two sisters had an odd occurrence. One awoke feeling as if someone was sitting next to her. When she opened her eyes, she saw that her sister was sound asleep on the other side of the room, but there was an impression of someone unseen sitting right next to her on the bed.


Saturday night we are staying at the 17 hundred 90... Also haunted... We actually got room 204 or another words Anna's room...

Anna Powers fell in love with a married seaman sometime in the early 1800's. She is said to have thrown herself to her own death from the third floor balcony onto the brick courtyard below just as the sails of his ship left her sight down the Savannah river toward sea. Since then her ghost is still believed to be haunting the inn, and primarily room 204. Many of our guests as well as employees have told of strange events occurring which have been attributed to the lonely heart of Anna Powers still waiting for her lover to return..

Well I can't wait to stay and I will let you know of all my ghostly experiances...

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